How much crap is in your house?

[ShittyGlitter]

I'm in the process of decluttering and preparing for a move.

I've already done what I thought was a decent sweep of the house for getting it on the market.

Now it's time to actually organise and dump/donate anything that we don't use or need.

But seriously how much stuff do people generally have? I feel like I'm swimming in years of accumulated things!
How do you know how much storage or vans required to move?

I feel like just throwing it all in a skip....but then how many skips

We have a four bed and two children. Any suggestions on how I can fit it all into one small van welcome.

How many van loads/storage containers will/did it take you?

Professional movers all the way.

Our little flat is full of stuff.

We are actually quite good at getting rid of most things - outgrown toys, clothes etc. But papers and books multiply into teetering piles.

DH runs a business from home so that's part of it, and our son has SEN so we have a ton of paperwork from stuff to do with that.

A to Zen life on Youtube - Marissa moved from USA to Germany and back again and has some great videos on decluttering before/after a move.

Getting the contents of a 4 bed house into a small van is an ambitious idea

Remember its the furniture that takes up space!

When we moved abroad we had 13m³ of shipping allowance. That was clothes, toys , washing machine, one bed, pushchair, books, kitchen stuff, bedding. A luton van is 19m³ according to google

All the furniture l, garden stuff, most books and homeware etc went into storage. That was a removal van

We moved ourselves but we did it over a couple of weeks, no way we could have done it in a day. And DH called in a lot of favours from friends to help with heavy lifting. It certainly makes you realise how much rubbish you own when you moved it all yourself, I was ready just to throw most of it in a skip and start afresh.

I wouldn't do it again, and definitely not if you have limited time to do it

We moved twice in 6 months (both times about 5 miles) so really needed to do it on the cheap so we paid for three men and large van - no way could we have carried, loaded and unloaded ourselves in one day each time. And even with three strong men doing everything for us, I'd save up for the packing and full removal package next time.

Recluttering the crap in our attic takes us months

We moved ourselves when we had a small house and not much stuff.

It helped I could gradually put it in my dm's garage and possibly in-laws. We didn't even move into our property straight away either

I would never do it now as I have a lot more stuff

Hrmm okay a lot to think about. I'll call around and get quotes tomorrow and see what's on offer.

I love the idea of a company coming in and packing everything for us! But they would be packing the years of B&M shite my MIL keeps appearing with. I hate the thought of just moving it somewhere else (at great expense!) to deal with. I need to ditch it all before.

Also if you pay for someone to move your stuff do they not just chuck it into the house any old place? What if the house isn't well cleaned? I don't want to lay my nice rug on top of someone unvaccumed pube coated floors.

You absolutely cannot do this yourself with a Luton van.

You need to pay for packers and movers, and get three firms to come and survey and quote.

I spent a month taking stuff to the tip/charity before mine came to quote, as downsizing. I am still averaging three tip trips a week with stuff that doesn't fit/work in new tiny house, several months later.

And yes, the movers will just lug it into the house on moving day. But if you have no overlap, you'll probably have from about 2pm to end of business to unload the van. There's no time to do anything other than get it in the house.

I couldn't unpack half my stuff into one room because a carpet was SO dirty I couldn't even place boxes on it, no exaggeration. I phoned a local carpet fitter and cried, and had to wait a couple of weeks with boxes piled everywhere to get a new carpet that wasn't pissed on.

If you have an overlap, you can get cleaners in or clean yourself. But the reality of UK completion is moving stuff in and praying that the vendors haven't done you dirty.

YOU NEED TO PAY PROFESSIONALS EITHER WAY!

Omg @LiviNC what had pissed on the carpet? Was it like that when you viewed!?

I'll expedite the crap dumping and get the professionals in to quote. Here's hoping when things are more organised I'll manage to find a good quote from a good company.

They don't just chuck it "any old place".

As long as you are using a proper removal company they will put each box and piece of furniture exactly where you want it.
Because we did our own packing we made sure each box was clearly labelled with the required location and before they came into the new house, a label was quicklyput on every door to show which room was which (living room, dining room, bedrooms 1, 2, 3, 4, utility, garage, shed etc).

If you find the new house is a mess you will have to quickly make a decision.
If a carpet is badly stained you have a short time window to decide if it can be cleaned or if you are going to pull it up so the boxes go direct on the floorboards.

The difference between having proper removers, man with van or DIY is vast.
Don't underestimate the amount of stress (and shear hard work) that can be taken off your shoulders by getting people in.

I've moved 3 times in 3 years!

The first move I didn't declutter as much as I should have and I needed 2 vans and 4 men. Furniture takes up alot of van room.

The next move I was more ruthless. I had 3 skips (although alot of that was shit the previous owner left) and I got rid of alot for free on Facebook, charity shops and the tip. It still took 1 large van.

The next move from a small 2 bed apartment was still 1 large van.

You need professional movers. They cleared each property in a couple of hours, put beds together and easily moved boxes. It was £600 and so worth it!

We've still got too much stuff. I've got bags to go to charity and I'm trying really hard not to bring things in. Too much stuff makes me feel anxious. I could quite easily pack a small bag, pick up the cat and leave today!

My top tip when you do move that I swear by is pack a suitcase with bed linen, a couple of outfits each, toiletries, towels and pyjamas to go in your car. Then once you are in you can make up the beds so you can flop.

I also pack a supply box with the kettle, mugs, tea bags and coffee, milk, cat food, wine and some silver wear. That goes the car as well.

Also my workbag with important documents.

You then have everything you need whilst you unpack.

Good luck!

More than I’d like but not that much to be honest. I absolutely loathe clutter so I’m fairly ruthless about getting rid of things we don’t need any more.
Baby stuff was passed on as soon as they had grown out of it, clothes are donated the minute they’ve got no use for us any more, I kept only ‘special’ drawings from the dc and put them all in one book, we binned all old school exercise books that they send home every year except one from reception each, books are donated once they’ve been read (mine, not the kids ones!), excess bedding and towels are sent to a friend who has a lot of animals and she’s always grateful for them. I’m just generally good at getting things out of the house when we don’t need it.
My mum isn’t a hoarder but her house just has so much furniture, everywhere there could be space has a piece of furniture crammed in it. I hated there not being any space when I lived at home and I’ve aimed to live a less ‘cluttered’ life as an adult.

My husband is a “collector” need I say anymore! The only saving grace is we have no children, I definitely don’t collect and I’m not sentimental either

Get a skip. Fill it. If you need another, do that but you probably won't. I had a serious clutter problem and one reasonable sized skip took all my crap. I then moved twice in a short time span (was a relocation so I rented first to decide where to buy) and got a man with a van to take a whole load more to the tip when I moved into my actual house. Also took loads to charity shops and gave away on Facebook (I could probably have sold some of it but I couldn't be arsed).
Then get a condo at to quote. I always pack myself which is stressful but much cheaper than getting them too. Mist will
Let you leave stuff in drawers anyway in my experience. Ask.
When they get to the new place they'll put it wherever you ask them. If you've viewed you'll know how clean/dirty a place is likely to be. Worst case is you puke some stuff in another room while you clean - furniture can be put even in dirty places.
Do it try to do it yourself. It's a nightmare (I did it once - never again).

That should say DON'T try and donut yourself! On the app so can't edit and my phone decides to write the opposite of what I meant!

Actually not much. I’m quite brutal when it comes to decluttering and I am limited in terms of my sense of sentimentality. Our house isn’t enormous and I’ve plenty to do in the house and on the farm without having to tidy and clean more than necessary! We’ve only got one child, a toddler, but for every new thing he gets, one old thing is out the door, whether via Vinted, a charity shop or the tip!

A crazy amount. There's 3 of us and I am genuinely mystified as to where it all comes from as I've spent two years decluttering, selling, donating and chucking! We barely ever go 'shopping', so what the hell???

I have far too much stuff. My adult DS moved into his own house a few months ago and already I noticed DH putting his stuff in my son's room. The double garage seems crammed full of power tools. I wouldn't mind if they got used a lot but only occasional use. Two garden sheds also full up with DH stuff. He still has clothes that no longer fits him in our wardrobe.

We moved not long ago and we couldn't decide between movers and doing it ourselves. Luckily we had a good amount of time and didn't move far. The movers quoted £600 for 24 items of furniture and white goods. We decided to do it ourselves and hired a Luton with a tail lift for 3 days for £275. It was hard work but we're glad we did it that way as we'd have had to move the boxes/ smaller stuff ourselves anyway as we only asked for a quote from the movers for the big stuff. In our 3 days of van hire we did about 4 van loads and they weren't packed full. Luckily we'd spent the previous 2 years decluttering the whole house.

We moved last year and the amount of crap we had accumulated over 16 years was ridiculous. Got rid of about 2/3 of it before we moved and the rest when we got to the new house (yes, I know. Moving crap!). I don't advise doing it the way we did so get rid of as much as you can. Also, when you've moved, don't be tempted to buy more crap. We can't do that as we've downsized.

We paid for moving and packing service and it was worth every penny and certainly was less stressful. For a 3 bed semi, 4 luton vans, a team of 5 men, we paid £4,000 and I'd pay it again if I ever moved - which I'm not doing.😂

Most of the crap in my house is in the garage and related to husbands hobbies / projects

One thing we did do when we moved was make the loft out of bounds as when we moved most of the stuff from the loft hadn’t been touched in years and got skipped